"We've made too many compromises already; too many retreats. They invade our space and we fall back. They assimilate entire worlds and we fall back. Not again. The line must be drawn here! This far, no further! And *I* will make them pay for what they've done!"- Jean Luc Picard (Star Trek first contact)

Well this is the first story of the New Year and it is a looooong one!

I'm sorry for the delay in posting, but it took a long while to figure out what I wanted to make my first story and an even longer time to type this baby up with school kicking me in the tail.

Still, this story exists side by side with my other Sci-Fi stories, and I'm hoping to start a Sci-fi novel this year!

Also, the character of Lady Brie belongs to the author Brievel, and a big thanks to her for letting me use her character. She has written some incredible Star Wars fanfiction, so please go and read that!

The character of Smuggler J also is one of the first characters I ever created, and he is based off of an amazing man named Mr. Hank. He's been a role model, a friend, and an all round great man and friend to have. So I hope you enjoy Smuggler J!

...

Iechilia was a barren world, floating lifelessly in space while orbiting a dying star. It had been razed to the ground by an orbital bombardment ten years ago, and two Federations were at war over the act.

Iechillia had been attacked by its neighbor, Xestrestea, on the grounds that the planet was preparing an attack, and Xestretra struck first.

Any evidence towards or against this accusation was buried as thousands of bombs and missiles rained down on the planet from all sides. Communication relays and satellites were shattered first, followed by all military installations, and then pinpointed strikes against populated cities. Millions died during the first hours of the attack, struggling to find safety where there was none.

Survivors attempted to flee or take shelter from the bombardment, hiding themselves away in bunkers or fortified buildings, confident the rain of fire would soon stop and landing parties would soon arrive to subjugate the planet under its new rulers. The survivors would be slaves, but they would live.

The bombardment didn't stop, it intensified. The warships in orbit systematically razed every sector of the planet to the ground, dooming anything alive to a slow and fiery death.

Until finally, the assault ended, after every spec of life was eradicated and purged in the fire of a hundred ships. No life would ever again grow on Iechillia, that fact was ensured with deadly accuracy by the orbiting ships.

The attackers left then, warping through hyperspace to return home, leaving a broken husk of a planet behind.

For ten years the Alliance and the Dominion had fought over the reasons for the razing of the planet, but finally, the war was about to end.

A warp gate opened in the fabric of space, its energies churning and fluxing as a small corvette leapt out of hyperspace.

It was a round ship, about 50 meters long, with two turbolasers on the forward of the ship and a light missile launcher on the underside. It was coated with light armor that shone in the light of Iechillia's sun, and a small scanning device was activated, popping out of the top of the ship to coat the dead planet in blue light.

Once the scan was complete, the ship beeped before a missile shot out of the launcher heading into the atmosphere.

….

The missile embedded itself into the soil, its bottom popping away to let a mixture of gasses entered the toxic air of the planet, while liquid leaked out of the tip, spreading into the irradiated soil.

Almost instantly a plant grew out of the ground around the missile, followed by another and another. The toxins left the atmosphere quickly, and the plants began to spread, the gasses and liquid turning the once barren world into a lively paradise.

Once the entire world was covered in grasses and small trees pods were dropped from the orbiting ship, letting dozens of space-suited figures onto the now habitable world, who promptly took the pods apart and began building shelters as the corvette landed as well.

…

However, this terraforming action did not go unnoticed by the highly advanced sensors of the Terrigon, a massive Dominion ship that rested on the fringes of their border with the Alliance. It was the sight of some heavy fighting between the two forces, so this massive cruiser waited for the next inviable clash between the two space Titans.

At its helm was Lady Brie, the greatest admiral the Dominion had, and the chief morale officer of the war effort. The Alliance had inflicted several defeats on the Dominion forces during the last few months of the war, and although none of these defeats were decisive it was still a blow for the resolve of the troops.

But when her cruiser entered the orbit of a planet, or she strode along a battlefield, the morale of her troops lifted and they became unstoppable.

Unlike the other generals of the Dominion, who were often given command over their troops because of who their father was or their political ideology, her command of her troops had been forged through countless battles and engagements. A policy of mutual respect was formed as she led her troops from the front, power swords deflecting any all threats from the front, while her men defended the back and sides. In the fires of war her men learned to trust her, and she, in turn, learned to trust them.

She turned as the sensors beeped and an officer analyzed the reading "Milady, Iechillia… it's alive. Reports indicate a breathable atmosphere, growing plant life and several heat sources moving on the planet's surface. "

Lady Brie walked over to examine the report herself, checking and double checking the facts, knowing that her scanners wouldn't lie... and yet a dead world had suddenly bloomed with life almost overnight.

"Pull up an analysis of the heat sources. Are they human?"

The officer shook his head "Not human nor any other alien in our database. We haven't even seen terraforming technology on this scale before, whatever this is it is something new to us."

She returned to the helm "Gather what forces you can spare and have them converge on our signal, whoever those new people are, the might have just ended the war for us."

….

Over the now lively planet of Iechillia, the Dominion fleet warped into position. It consisted of three large cruisers and two dreadnoughts, each gigantic silver ship was oblong and bristling with banks of laser cannons and missile launchers. Each ship also had two engines, powered by countless fusion reactors that propelled them through space.

A smaller frigate owned by the Dominion ally, the Ieshi, floated by the other ships. Unlike the polished silver Dominion ships, this one was painted in bright colors and was clumped in the front, with a metal bridge connecting the front to the engines. Small laser turrets were placed on the top of the hull, and a shield generator was located near the bottom of the ship.

Finally, four box shaped ships, divided into three sections, brought up the rear of the fleet. Twin laser cannons graced the top of the middle section and the four engines of the ships sputtered as they glided through the fleet. These were the corvettes of the Teludorg Monarchy, and although they looked like junk piles someone had simply added a hyperspace engine too, they were very efficient in combat.

Finally, a hundred Dominion, Teludorg, and Vourk Starfighters and bombers wove around the two ships. Dominion fighters were black and silver and were crescent shaped, Teludorg fighters were box shaped with a single engine, and the Vourk fighters were designed to look like wolf heads with the pilot sitting in the mouth while protective armor made up the skull.

Lady Brie and the Terrigon stood at the helm of the fleet, with Lady Brie wishing she could have more ships at her disposal. Both the Dominion and Alliance fleets were stretched thin by the war effort, but the possibility of one side massing its resources for an attack was tempting, almost too tempting. Anything to break the boring monotony of the current stalemate.

Still, she'd just barely gotten permission from her master to organize this expedition, and she took the most ships she could without weakening the defenses of the Dominion as a whole.

The now green world of Iechillia filled her viewport, and she walked over to the helmsmen, noticing that the heat signatures were still there. "Patch us through to their communications."

The man nodded and tapped a few things on his keyboard before a soft static filled the bridge.

"Iechillia colony, this is the Terrigon, representing the Dominion. Please respond."

The static didn't change in pitch or rhythm, it only filled the bridge with a dreary drone as the officials and Lady Brie waited for a response.

After two minutes she tried again, saying the same message as the static from the planet filled her ears.

This time a response came after she finished speaking, from a voice as dry and droning as the static itself. "Leave this place Dominion. We do not know of you and wish to be left alone."

"I respect your wishes" Lady Brie replied, "But this world has been dead for years, and an entire war is being fought to determine who is to blame for the act, if you simply told us how you terraformed the world to your needs, both sides of this conflict would thank you for helping to end ten years of strife." She squeezed the hilts of her powerswords as she waited for a response. If terraforming on this scale was possible, countless worlds ruined by both sides in the conflict could be rebuilt… they could be saved the blaming and pointing fingers and instead focus on gaining a lasting peace.

"Our secrets are our own and you shall not have them. We wish to be left alone." The voice replied.

She bit her lip in frustration and took a breath to calm herself. "Please reconsider" She started, pressing gently. She wanted to respect their request for solitude, but the idea of gaining this level of technology could revolutionize the galaxy as a whole. "This could help millions of people."

"We do not care about the others, we care about ourselves, and this is your final warning. We wish to be left alone."

The dry voice repeating the same words over and over again caused something to snap in Lady Brie as she grabbed the comlink, letting a bit of anger flow into the respectful tone of her voice. "I'm sorry, but you won't be left alone. There are others in this galaxy that will see what you have done, just as we have, but they might not ask you to willingly share your technology… they might take it by force."

"We will not share our secrets, and your fleet has not obeyed our warning."

"Milady, we have multiple heat signatures on the planet and they are getting hotter!" An officer yelled as the static cut off.

"Multiple objects are coming up from those spots…." He continued as another alarm went off.

"We have ships incoming from Hyperspace!"

…

A fleet of Alliance ships warped into the system, with an Alliance battleship leading the parade.

Several corvettes made up the front of the fleet, painted in red and gold as their triple engines propelled them forward. Two batteries of laser cannons decorated the backs of the corvettes, and they had the Alliance insignia on their sides.

2 frigates followed, each one made up of a massive engine which the rest of the ship was built around. As a consequence, they were heavily armored but slightly slower in normal space and combat than other ships.

However, the prize of the fleet was the battleship. It was twelve thousand meters long and armed with turbolasers, missiles, and torpedo launchers, as well as several banks of point defense cannons. Three shield generators encased the battleship in a near constant defensive field, and its powerful hyperspace drive was strong enough to send it across the galaxy in a matter of days.

Much like the Dominion fleet, Starfighters buzzed like wasps around the capital ships. Alliance fighters and bombers wove around, following their squadron leaders.

"Alright boys and girls, all wings report in." The lead ship called

"Grey flight here"

"Red flight inbound"

"Green flight standing by"

"Blue flight here"

"Gold flight reporting in"

The lead ship was shaped like a large letter J, with the engines and sensors in the rear end of the ship, while lasers and the pilot seat was near the front. This was the Fortune's Glory, and it belonged to a man known as Smuggler J.

He was a freelance smuggler and pilot, and normally operated alone, but the threat the Dominion ships were facing was more than even he could take on alone, and maybe it was even more that the Alliance could take on alone.

Still, he was the only man who had faced them before, and the only man who knew how powerful these forces were. So the Alliance command had given him a temporary general's commission, and he was now in charge of the fleet they had scraped together.

"All fighters form on me, no stray shots people… we aren't at war with the Dominion today." The smuggler ordered, moving his ship closer towards the Dominion fleet.

"We've got hotspots on the planet ready to blow sir, something's going on over there…"

"Missiles are firing sir! The planet is hostile!"

….

"BRACE!"

The officers instantly obeyed Lady Brie's command, holding onto their consoles with a white-knuckle grip as the missiles from the planet soared upwards

They smashed into the closest Dominion ships, causing bright flashes to explode on the viewports of the Terrigon.

Once it had faded she grabbed the communication controls "All ships, give me a damage report! Now!"

The reports came in from all but two ships. "No damage reported, but two of the Teludorg ships have not responded."

"Teludorg ships, please respond… "Lady Brie called.

"W-we can't!" The panicked cry called back "We Ca…."

The two Teludorg ships turned away from the main Dominion battle fleet, advancing towards the Alliance forces.

"Fall back in line!" Brie snapped, growling as the ships continued on their course. "Fall back in line, Now!"

"We can't Milady!"

"We've scanned them, the ships are affected by a signal coming from a hyperspace warp!"

"What kind of signal?"

"It's mind control milady…" The officer said.

…..

The two rogue ships opened fire on the Alliance forces, letting laser blasts and missiles fizzle out on the Alliance shields.

"Shall we return fire?" One of the captains yelled.

"Not yet, not yet…" Smuggler J cursed "This is bigger than all of us… patch me through to the Dominion leader! All fighters on me, do not engage!"

"We're being jammed, sir!"

The Alliance fighters followed the Smuggler ship as it moved away from the laser blasts, dodging and veering as static filled all of the ships present, shutting down any and all attempts to communicate.

"More missiles are coming up from the planet!" A captain called into Smuggler J's earpiece.

"This time we'll be ready!" He growled "All point defenses, open up! Shields at maximum and fighters prepare to engage!"

The Alliance ships opened fire as the volley of missiles shot up towards them. Laser blasts, plasma orbs, and energy bullets were shot downwards, crashing into the missiles and causing several explosions as the built in shields of the missiles overloaded.

Smuggler J's ship arced downward, opening fire with his laser cannons as the fighters behind him picked a missile and strafed it from 3 sides.

Lasers and torpedoes crashed into the weapons, the onboard shields fizzling out as they became overloaded by the fire, and several of the missiles exploded under the barrage.

Only two missiles made it through the barrage of laser fire, and both collided with two Alliance corvettes.

The same bright flash filled the air, as the affected corvettes suddenly turned away from the Alliance formation and opened fire on the Dominion ships.

The Dominion ships returned fire, and that was all the two warring powers needed to tear into one another angrily.

Heedless of both Lady Brie's and Smuggler J's frantic warnings and orders, the two foes attacked one another.

Dominion cruisers traded fire with the Alliance Battleship, frigates and corvettes blasted one another, and all fighters flew in between the larger ships, dueling one another with lasers and missiles.

…..

Smuggler J cursed as his ship came under attack by three Dominion fighters, and he zoomed downwards through the field of laser fire.

His fists clenched on his controls as he spun away from the attacking ships, returning fire with his own laser cannons. One eye was on the radar as he moved to weave between the attacking ships, while the other was on the weapon systems.

His weapons spat fire as the ship did a barrel roll, two of the Dominion fighters exploding as his accurate shooting paid off.

An explosion shattered his thoughts as two fighters chased each other across his viewport, and a blast of laserfire from the final Dominion starship smashed into the engines.

He winced as the ship shuddered, almost as if it was a living thing in pain before he added more power to the rear shields. His laser cannon spun around, opening fire on his attacker, and the Dominion ship blossomed into a fireball.

….

Lady Brie stood on the bridge of the Terrigon, barking orders to the entire fleet as the battle resumed.

Her orders were carried out efficiently and quickly, but her Starfighters were taking heavy damage, and without a heavy screen of Starfighters the Alliance bombers would fly rings around her bigger ships

"Prepare my personal Starfighter, I'm going out there." She turned on her heel and walked towards the hangar.

Her aides took over the battle preparation, as she listened in via her comlink.

She walked towards her Starfighter, which was a black and red vessel with a cockpit at one end and a laser cannon at the other. Another set of three lasers rested just below the cockpit itself, and as she slid into her seat and secured herself she smiled.

Space combat was oddly equal parts beautiful and relaxing for her, as she was fully able to trust in herself and her own abilities.

Her Master had no power over her in space, she wasn't expected to be a leader in space, and in space, she could use channel all her stress into the actions of the combat.

So she took a deep breath and activated her ship, leaving the hangar and heading out into the controlled chaos of space combat.

….

All the Dominion fighters zoomed over to her ship, as she led them into the fray "All fighters fan out and attack the Alliance bombers… I'll handle the fighters!"

Her ship veered away as the fighters attacked the Bombers, strafing the slower ships with laserfire as Lady Brie attacked the fighters.

The smaller Alliance ships wove through the web of corvette laser fire, for the most part, and any that didn't explode into atoms met Lady Brie.

Lady Brie opened fire with her lasers, the four turrets spitting beams of death as she wove around the enemy. Her fighter had no radar, no sensors, and only a small shield generator for protection. She didn't need it.

She could sense everything around her better than the finest radar. She didn't need a computer or an overly complicated scanner to tell her when to fire or dodge… she just knew, and that skill was what made her the best pilot in the Dominion.

She sensed, rather than saw, a fighter get on her tail, sticking with her despite her maneuvers. She was able to dodge the laserfire from her pursuer easily, giving her full attention to the fighter in front of her. Her fingers tightened on the controls of her weapons as she waited for the optimum moment to fire.

Wait…Wait… fire!

She squeezed the controls and opened fire, her attack smashing into the rear engines and setting them aflame, causing the fighter to explode an instant later. She kept her course, flying right through the wreckage and fire like a phoenix, noticing that her risky maneuver had thrown her pursuer off her tail.

The attacks on her fighters had evened out, and the Alliance bombers were being destroyed. That, however, was the only advantage that the Dominion had. The larger ships were still pounding away at one another and neither side seemed to be gaining an advantage in the battle.

Then static filled the ears of every Alliance and Dominion soldier.

…

"We are the Yakta, this galaxy shall be ours… you have not respected our desire to be left alone… so you will carry a message to your overlords. We are the Yakta, and we are strong."

The message played on every frequency as Captains and Generals for both fleets stared at one another in confusion as equally confused pilots and crewmembers awaited orders.

Then a third fleet came from Hyperspace and opened up its batteries on both sides.

…..

The fleet was made of thirty smaller corvettes, along with twenty destroyers, six battleships, and one large cruiser that easily dwarfed both the Alliance Battleship and the Terrigon.

All the ships were painted black and gray, and all were armed to the teeth with laser weaponry. The Corvettes were the smallest and were about the same size as the Dominion corvettes. The destroyers were slightly bigger and their hulls glowed with a strange energy, the Battleships were three times as long as the corvettes, and the Cruiser dwarfed them all in size and power.

Blue, red, and orange lasers shot beams towards the bigger Alliance ships, with an unlucky frigate in their path first.

The captain of the frigate smiled "All shields at maximum, move in to return fire! Now!"

The lasers smashed into the front of the frigate, bypassing the shields as if they were non-existent, before boring into the hull.

"Captain, we are taking fire, those weapons are cutting into our hull! We have a breach at sector five sir!" A technician screamed as alarms wailed.

"Pull back! Get out of range!"

…..

The Frigate exploded into a fireball as the lasers sheared it in half, and Smuggler J cursed. "Alliance battleship… this is Smuggler J… what can you tell me about these newcomers?"

"Our scans are inconclusive… we do not have any ships matching their capabilities in the known galaxy sir! They appear to have ship types similar to our own, but we don't know anything more!"

"Great!" Smuggler J growled as countless starfighters zoomed out of the large unknown Cruiser.

"All ships, evasive maneuvers!" He growled, already turning his scanners on the starfighters.

Unmanned drones… I hate unmanned drone ships!

At least he didn't have to feel bad about shooting them down in droves because he did. His ship zoomed into the swarm, all weapons firing as the drones exploded. "At least they're weak, but there are thousands of them!"

The drones opened fire with orange lasers, the long beams crisscrossing against the blackness of space, slicing apart every Alliance and Dominion ship that crossed their paths. Explosions filled the viewports of any surviving ship as they wove between them.

"Alliance battleship? Do you read?" Smuggler J asked, turning his fighter into a nosedive to escape two drones.

"We read you, commander!" The reply was punctuated by a series of explosions as the ship was rocked by laser blasts "Our shields are useless against these lasers, and our hull is barely hanging on!"

"Patch me through to the leader of the Dominion, we're going to have to wheel and deal!" He ordered, pushing his ship's speed to the limit to escape the pursuing drones.

…

Lady Brie's senses were overwhelmed as she struggled to dodge the beams of the drones, her fingers were clenched tightly on the triggers of her weapons, spitting out a constant stream of laser blasts as she wove and strained her built in radar to the limit.

When her earpiece crackled, she bit her lip in anger as her concentration was thrown off, and she made a mental note to have a serious talk with whoever was on the other end.

"Milady, the commander of the Alliance forces wishes a word with you. He says it's urgent and could save both our fleets."

She spat her response through gritted teeth as she shoved her ship into a tight turn. "Fine! Put him through!"

"Lady Brie, my name is Smuggler J and I am the commander of this Alliance fleet. I'm also the only person who knows what these Yakta want with our galaxy, and I'll gladly share the information… if we make it out of here alive, and the only way we can do that is by working together."

She considered the proposal for a split-second, these drones were too numerous to be beaten alone, the larger ships were ripping both sides apart, and the Yakta might have even more abilities that they didn't know about.

"Fine, we will help you… in exchange for the information, you know."

She switched her earpiece signal to the Dominion ships, "All Dominion forces, repeat all Dominion forces… the Alliance ships are no longer enemies to be engaged… focus all fire on the Yakta ships, repeat the Yakta are our only enemies!"

….

And so, after ten years of fighting, Alliance and Dominion ships alike turned their weapons on a common enemy, bombarding the Yakta forces with all the power at their disposal.

"Milady! The Alliance ships and our own have come up with a plan!" An officer yelled into her earpiece, groaning as another explosion rocked the Terrigon.

"We… drones are controlled by cruiser… knock out power relays… escape!"

She growled as static cut off the message, but it made sense. If the drones were robotic they had to be controlled from somewhere, and the giant cruiser was putting out the most power.

"Alright, all fighters follow me!" She ordered, zooming directly into the cloud of drones, her weapons carving a path through towards the cruiser.

"Smuggler, did you copy that?" She asked, noticing how his ship had fallen in line with hers.

"I did, my ship's scanners indicate that the most power is in the frontal end of the Cruiser, hopefully with these drones off our backs we can safely get out of here!" He responded. "Our larger ships are already going to bombard that target with everything they've got, then we'll hit it with a closer blast."

"Agreed… all cruisers fire!"

…

The combined fleet of ships opened fire with every laser, missile, and cannon they possessed, letting the missiles carve a hole into the drones and vaporize hundreds with each hit before the weapons smashed into the cruiser.

Explosion after explosion ripped across the hull of the cruiser as the stream of laser fire continued, only ceasing after the last weapon had been expended.

When the smoke cleared, the front of the Yakta cruiser was a mangled and broken heap, its armor peeled away to reveal the generator powering the drone fleet.

Lady Brie zoomed forward, already noticing that the hull was starting to knit itself back together as if the damage had never existed in the first place. She opened fire, peppering the hull with lasers as her shots slammed into the generator.

As she pulled away, Smuggler J shot two missiles into the hole, causing a second explosion as the remaining Alliance and Dominion fighters took their turns blasting away at the generator.

Until finally, it exploded, causing a shockwave that caused the drones to shudder and then float lifelessly in space.

She floated and landed into the hangar of the Terrigon as both battered fleets weathered the final attacks from the Yakta lasers before they vanished into Hyperspace.

….

As the generator repaired itself, the colony on Iechillia beamed a message to the fleet. "The primitives were more resourceful than we realized, but our Supreme Leader will soon enter this galaxy with our full power, and they will be swept away by our forces. The Yakta autocracy will reign as the ultimate power in this system, and then the entire cosmos will bow before us as their masters!"

…..

The two battered fleets rested next to one another, repairing and going over scans of the Yakta ships, as Lady Brie opened a communication to the Alliance ships.

"Alright Smuggler J… tell us what you know."

...

Well, that's that!

I hope you enjoyed the story and if you want to see more of the Yakta (Including the story of Smuggler J's encounter with them) please let me know in a review! I hope this Sci-Fi universe catches on, and if it does I'll start connecting the dots!

I'll also be back to my regular story sheducale soon (Starting with two chapters of IWIW) so please look out for those!

As always please leave a review, feel free to check out my other works, and have a great day! :D

The author would like to thank you for your continued support. Your review has been posted.